Mr. Otto

JDM was an option too, you see, I, too, have an old Dell... ;) Thanks for the feedbacks! completely off-topic, but I was just reading MBSID's CC's Chart and thinking about the possibilities of controling it with a DrumKat, and holly s* that can be awesome! way better than having a Machinedrum!

It would be an excellent choice if only Brasil's tax laws weren't such a F* pain.. so I'll have to double your $35. Add that to It's more fun if you do it and you get the idea. I read your thread about doing so using a Pickit2, it helped me understand a few things, thanks!

Well, no response from the company... Good thing actually, a few hours after my second post I red a bit more carefully about the PIC Burner project and it doesn't sound difficult at all! A bit worried about the psu, though. Sometimes information on wiki comes and goes... and I'm preatty sure somebody wrote something about not using 2x9vbattery 'cuz it won't drive a steady voltage most of the times, but I can't find it anymore. In Michael Klein tut. he says it is an option... any help ?

It is independent. Before that you could still control live, on a more "standardised" way.

I was actually more interested in the fact that with MFL you could finally modify Live's synths and/or make your own, just like you can in Reaktor. Witch would, at least for me, transform Live in a real do-it-all software. Before that I just couldn't let Reaktor go. The whole fuzz about djstyle control really isn't my thing... I'd be more than glad on helping members to acomplish any of theirs projects regardless of their final objectives, though. If I just knew a bit more about it all. Hopefully, it won't take long. Regarding open-source. It is a shame it isn't Pure Data for Live.

Yes you can. All you have to do is drag and drop a midi file into the session or arrangement view and Live will automatically split each track in a separate clip. Then you need to assign an instrument to each clip and that's it. Edit: Right after I wrote this post I went to Live's web page. And for my surprise, they announced Live 8. First I thought, ok just a few nice new features, nothing I won't be able to live without. But then I saw this : http://www.ableton.com/extend And that, my friends, is a killer.

I was going to call them next monday, but let's email them too... I tought of that one because it is at very good price, and it seams very flexible, it also can be attached to their dev. board, witch is not expensive either, and it comes with a pic 18f452 along with manuals for students... so it would be very cool if it works thanks stryd, as soon as get a reply from them i'll paste it here.

I decided to make all pcb's, burning, etc.. from scratch, since I think it is more fun, and Smash won't send kit here, so.. Anyway, I'm having trouble on the burning PIC thing, I can't tell if a burner suports HVP. A week ago I found a brazilian made pic burner that seams to be able to do the job... here's the link, it is in portuguese, but I think one could tell by the schematics on the page: http://www.microgenius.com.br/shop/detalhes.asp?id=28&produto=410 Any hint would be of great help. Thanks

Hey Gustavo, I'm from Brasil too (found it better to keep typing in english so everyone can understand) I've desided to build my own from scratch too, the only thing is that I'm not sure about what PIC burner to buy, I've seen that there is even some brazilian ones, much cheeper, and they seam quite nice, but still don't know if they would do the job. Have you started it already? I know that there is at least one other member from Brasil, since there was a SID chipping to here from Wilba's... maybe that guy knows better.

Hey, thanks man! I was thinking of running the LCD like that, and the "re-use" thing sounds easier indeed. Build-in Midi ports is a must have... Anyway, I'll be thinking more about that.

Have you tryed Xubuntu? Aparently a much more efficient desktop. I'm currently testing everything in my pc, it's probably going to be the next... About the set up, it is intended for live performance, and I'm a drummer, so this thing will probably have pads too, I'm realy not concerned about sequencers, I like to play it all. And the real motivation is to build something that could fit perfectly on a briefcase, is is much more about package and interface than anything else. In the end what I would like to do is to transform a computer on a really powerfull synth (workstation), in a case that could take the hit, also being small and easy to carry. And if you think about it, things in here will lead to something like that, projects are getting more complex, eventually, MBDSP... So why not going straight to the other end, computers, and then reverse engineering it to fit our needs? As I said, it's MBuntu hardwarewise. Well, maybe then I'll finally be able to bring something new to Midibox, I'm an Architect/Industrial Designer to be (1 year left) and I'd be more than happy to help anyone in the forum with their cases.

Yes, it would be a MB64 basically, but I'm talking about doing a mod for a whole pc... And then you have to program it for runing tasks when you press a button on the front panel for exemple... I know it isn't like a new project, but it is definitely a new interface, and bringing a computer on stage has always been an issue. I don't know about programming this, but would that be too hard? I mean, imagine you use Pd, and more then one software for effects, and with a few buttons pressed on the fpanel you could skip softwares... have you seen any MB64 / PC all-in-the-same-box around ? conceptually speaking, it is the same as Mbuntu, but in the hardware side, maybe in the case-side in the beginning, but I suppose it could evolve...

Agree on that. By the way, Don't you think it should be good for live playing too? Imagine using an old ThinkPad runing mbuntu as an instrument, or something like a small rough barebone... As small as a mac mini, and you even could, as a option, use a 20x4 lcd instead of a full size display. And just like MB, you can access some patches trough buttons on the front panel, so you don't have to use a mouse. I must say that I have a maximum of 1,5 months of experience on electronics circuit, and just starting programming, but it doesn't seam impossible. It is hard for me, but I'm willing to try Do you guys think it's worth a shot ? MBPC? MBPowerPC? (in case you want to hack those colored imac)

I see what you mean. I'll probably try an older release now, F10 crashed twice while configuring Pure Data's audio settings, something about OSS and ALSA... I'm starting to think that having a huge selection of programs and drivers like in ccrma is actually very confusing, at least for beginners.

Nice! Finally got Fedora 10 working and double booting with XP. Of course that it was just a bit less user friendly than Ubuntu, but still much more then Ubuntu Studio... Beginners like me will always have trouble on the partitioning step... Besides the instalation process, both desktops were really intuitive, F10 graphics performance are much better I guess, though... Now I'm trying ccrma, but I get an error right at the begining trying to get the packages. I'm not sure about what makes it better in making MB's own distro instead of just making something like ccrma, I guess it is something like building your own house instead of renting one.

That's the one, great first project... Now I'm trying out some bending, it gets weirder every time.

WHYYYYY??! It isn't fair... Anyway, I think mostly everyone in this forum joined it because they thought MBox(SID, FM, Seq) was so cool that they decided to learn electronics and/or programming so they could have it. Not because they were a bunch of nerds with nothing else to do. So if you are not willing to go trough the process of learning this (witch, in my opinion is half the fun), then you simply don't deserve it... Stick with sidstation then

Apparently it was a very good topic name to get attention. I will definitely try more of those on better questions, or hopefully, in a few months, news, photos, anyway, proof that I'm on to something, not just asking and never starting s**t... Well, 3 weeks ago I didn't know what a resistor was, and now I have my own precious soldering iron and a weird noise gen. from musicfromouterspace.com prototyped on a breadboard! That's fun, my folks think I'm getting crazy though. Too much solder smoke. Anyway, I think I got what the MIDI standard means. It is supposed to have a opto-isolator on it, so that's why your midibox won't burn your computer or vice-versa... Thanks.

A few weeks ago when I first discovered the DIY-World, witch started at Music From Outer Space site and MBox site, I ran into KTechLab at the PIC's wiki page... Of course that back then I didn't know the difference between Ubuntu and PhotoShop, so KTechLab wasn't that usefull. Instead I stole Proteus (...back then it didn't seam wrong, but now it is, I'm a grown up now), and I think it would be the most complete simulator, since it does everything we wished for, and apparently it simulates speakers in real time! wich is cool. Would've been even cooler if I could make it work, but anway, it is for Windows and it is too expensive, so no... But KTechLab, I'll give it a try... As soon as I'm able to install Fedora 10... By the way, I'm definitely the test monkey for MBuntu's project. If I can use it, then everyone can... Thanks.

By the way, do you know any good ones ? For Linux of course... Or even better, Circuit sim. with audio output and PIC emulation

Thank you for the reply ! The short answer will be a nice guideline

This is my first post, I've been hangin' around Midibox for a while now, already started learning electronics and all but it is my first post anyway... I think I read something about posting rules or something but I couldn't find it again, so please excuse me for some mistakes, and english mistakes too, I'm from Brazil... First of all I'd like to thank you all for the forum, althou I always thought this is way bigger than a forum, it is a whole community working together for the future of technology spreading... ok then, first question : What about impedance? I know MidiBox system works, it works very well, and I know it won't burn my computer if I try to drive Ableton Live with a Midibox64. But I tried to understand how it really works and I couldn't find more info about impedance, I mean, I know what it is, but I really don't know what to do with it... Is it something you needed to worry about when designing the pcb's? if so how do you know your computer's impedance? Do you have to match midibox and computer's impedance? or the voltages on a midi signals so low that it really doesn't matter? It is probably very stupid, but at the same time you could build a simple midibox without ever making yourself that same question since all the design is done, but hey, why not ask? That's it! Thank you guys, keep the amazing work... Mr. Otto